Ioannis Kakridis

The classical philologist and Homerist Ioannis Th. Kakridis was born in Athens in 1901, the son of the Latinist Theofanis A. Kakridis. He studied philology at the Universities of Athens, Berlin, Vienna, and Leipzig. In 1925, he was awarded a doctorate from the University of Athens. Between 1924 and 1931, he worked as an editor for the "Historical Dictionary" of the Academy of Athens. In 1930, he was appointed as a lecturer in ancient Greek philology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and in 1939, he became a professor at the University of Athens, where he taught until 1945. He also taught in Stockholm, Uppsala, Lund in Sweden, and Tübingen in Germany. His bold ideas for the time—being a fervent supporter of language reform, the demotic language, and the monotonic system—led to the "Trial of Accents" against him, instigated by the University of Athens between 1941-42, resulting in his forced resignation from his position. Between 1964 and 1967, he served as the president of the Pedagogical Institute, spearheading the educational reform of Georgios Papandreou's government. In 1968, he resigned from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki due to the dictatorship. After the restoration of democracy, he collaborated with KEME. He passed away in Athens in 1992, leaving behind a rich body of written and translated works. (Source: Authors' Archive EKEVI)